Batter up! MLBC 2019 is coming…

The Lucid Sight Team is excited to kick off this next season of MLB Crypto Baseball (or MLBC for short). It has been a while since we last updated you on MLBC and with our 2019 season around the corner, I am happy to unveil some of the GAME CHANGING features and improvements you will see in our upcoming season. So without further delay, let’s get started!

2018 MLBC Season Recap

2018 was our inaugural year for MLBC and was an exciting time for us at Lucid Sight as we got to bring the game-changing reality of True Digital Ownership into the hands of players around the world. While we only had a short season, the excitement around MLBC was noticed.

While we did have some bumps in the road in 2018, those players who participated last year ended up with what are now the only 2018 MLBC Collectibles that will ever exist! This is made possible with our Blockchain enforced True Digital Scarcity (Just a reminder: 2018 MLBC figures can no longer be minted as that quantity has been secured and locked by the ETH blockchain).

Another major milestone was Lucid Sight’s partnership with the Los Angeles Dodgers to create the first ever Crypto Bobblehead Night at a major US sporting event. On September 21st 2018, we gave out Digital Crypto Bobbleheads on PVC ETH Wallets to the first 40,000 attendees. For most people, this was not only their first Ethereum NFT (Non-Fungible Token) but the very first crypto asset they have owned. This was a big step towards exposing the general public to True Digital Assets while increasing the awareness of MLBC.

Now as 2019 quickly approaches we see a resurgence of gaming activity. The average price of Figures has steadily increased the last few months as the 2019 season nears its start. In the previous 30 days, the average MLBC Figure sells for ~$22, this is up from ~$5 per Figure in December 2018.

Here are some stats for our 2018 MLBC Season.

2019 MLBC: What’s New

Game cards, Gameplay, and rarity distribution have received a complete overhaul for 2019. Our goal was to increase the value of user decision making in reward generation and provide gameplay driven rarity and an attribute distribution system. With this is in mind let me introduce you to my favorite feature of this year, the Player Rarity Index (PRI).

2019 Common Player Base

Player Rarity Index (PRI)PRI is an MLBC gamified measurement of MLB player performance that will kick in at the launch of MLBC Gameplay. The system functions as follows: Once Gameplay commences, the performance of an MLB player during the season influences the chance that they will appear as a Figure in reward drops. As an MLB player does better during the season, they are less likely to become available as a reward. However, the less likely that Figure is to appear, the higher the chance it has of having rare attributes, such as having a gold base or having an iridescent bat.

With PRI active, well-performing MLB players will naturally get rarer over the season increasing the scarcity of those Figures in existence. Consequently, poor performing MLB players will be more likely to appear in drops. In this scenario, we see the potential for exciting outcomes and the opportunity for users to make strategic decisions on what Figures to acquire early in the season while they are still easy to secure.

2019 Game CardsGame Cards are getting a significant change this year as players will now be able to set up 22 man rosters for each team. Also, we are moving game creation & management off of the Ethereum blockchain. This means Game creation will be FREE during the regular season (postseason will have new rules and some gameplay changes). Game Card updates and modifications will now also happen instantly and will not be hampered by blockchain transaction delays.

Game Cards are getting the addition of a bench and bullpen. On a Game Card, you will be able to accommodate up to 22 total MLBC Figures with 9 Figures in your starting lineup, 6 Figures as bench players (including a DH), and 7 Figures as bullpen pitchers.

Bench and bullpen MLBC Figures will automatically take the field during live MLB games as their counterparts are cycled into the game. This change will ensure users are earning the maximum amount of reward points (known as Caps this year) on your game. Don’t worry if you don’t have 22 MLBC Figures, you will still be able to play MLBC. Only a single MLBC Figure is required to play, but you’ll earn more Caps with more players you can put on the field!

New and Improved Game EventsWith the increase in the number of Figures you can put on a game, you will have more opportunities to complete Game Events. You will be able to pick up to 5 Game Events to play from the Game Events that are available for your Figures. If any of the 5 selected Game Events occur in the live MLB game, you earn Caps! The only limitation is that you cannot choose duplicate Game Events when you are selecting them for your Game Card.

Here is a sample of how the new Game Event system will work:John creates a Dodgers Game Card that he fills with 11 Figures. His Figures have the total following Game Events:

3 - Home Run Game Events2 - Double Play Game Events2 - 9 Strike Out Game Game Events1 - 5 RBI Game Game Event1 - Shutout Game Event1 - Grand Slam Game Event 1 - No-Hitter Game Event

John feels confident that the Dodgers are going to do amazingly well in their next live MLB Dodgers game, so he chooses the following Game Events: Double Play, 5 RBI Game, 9 Strike Out Game, Home Run and Grand Slam.

During the live MLB game, the Dodgers get a Home Run. Because John had selected the Home Run Game Event, his Game Card will earn more Caps!

2019 Game Event Player Specific Base

Post-Game Rewards & CapsNow let’s talk about MLBC Gameplay Rewards. Similar to last season, at the end of every MLB game, your Game Card has the possibility of generating a reward based on your team’s performance. Unlike last year, your Game Card performance will also play a role in the quality and quantity of the reward generated. This new game mechanic will reward players for their ability to track and predict the performance of their favorite MLB players and teams. Caps (MLBC reward in-game currency) is the item you will earn based on your Game Cards performance. Caps can be consumed to unlock post-game rewards that you might have missed and used to gain additional rewards outside of post-game reward flow (more on this below). Let’s start by discussing how post-game rewards will work this season.

Every Game Card has the potential of earning up to 3 post-game rewards. Rewards are MLBC figures of your team that can inherit attributes from your existing Figures. The following criteria must be hit on a Game Card to provide an additional MLBC Figure post-game:

Your team wins a game with a full 22 Figure lineup, at least 9 unique Figures played in that MLB game, and your total earned Caps value (aka Game Card points) meets the minimum threshold for that game (This number will fluctuate throughout the season and is a metric derived from overall Game Card performance).

Your team completes all Game Events you predicted on your Game Card in addition to completing all the requirements of #1 except the win condition.

A Legendary Event occurs, and you predicted both the event and the MLB player who hits it (more details on this system below) in addition to completing all the requirements of #1 except the win condition. The reward generated from this can also be a new MLB player specific Game Event Reward (More details on a future gameplay post).

These earned post-game rewards are the only rewards in MLBC that will utilize the inheritance functionality and allow you to grow the rarities in your collection from the one you already have. 2018 rarities CAN be inherited by their 2019 counterparts. As mentioned above, if you happen NOT to hit one or all of these post-game rewards you will still be able to use your earned Caps rewards to unlock them.

Team Reward DugoutIn addition to the post-game reward system, this season we are unveiling a whole new way to earn MLBC Figures. The Team Reward Dugout (TRD) is where users will be able to spend their Caps on MLBC Figures from any team. The Figures claimed here will have random attributes and will be offered at different Cap tiers: the higher the tier, the higher the chance of acquiring a Figure of a top performing MLB player with rare characteristics. More details on this and Caps will be in a future post detailing 2019 gameplay.

Daily DropsAnother exciting addition this season is our Daily Drops. After every MLB game, a reward pool will be generated based on MLB player performance, Legendary Game Events (Grand Slam, Perfect Game, etc..) and user engagement (Number of game cards, Caps earned, etc…). This pool is available to both the winning and losing players of that game for 24 hours, purchasable or claimable with Caps. The pool is comprised of random MLBC Figures of BOTH teams and a fixed quantity of Legendary Event Figures. The number of Legendary Event Figures and the amounts of rare attributes will be publicly displayed and incremented every time one is discovered. After 24 hours, the remaining Figures get placed in a public pool for any MLBC user to purchase.

Let’s see what an example of this looks like from a users perspective (Note these numbers are for example purposes only):

It’s Tuesday and James has his Angels full 22 figure roster ready for the big game. He selected the game events he feels are most likely to happen and the MLB players that will most likely accomplish them. Now there is nothing left for James to do but sit back and enjoy this Angels game.

The Angels won and James is ecstatic! He can’t wait to log in to MLBC and see what rewards he has earned. One of the Game Events James predicted was on the money, Mike Trout on a Grand Slam Event! This plus having selected all the right MLB players sets James up for potentially unlocking all 3 post-game rewards. James logs into MLBC and checks the TRD page for his Game Card and looks like he earned all 3 Post-game rewards. Score!

Opening his rewards he discovers that he’s got a couple of significant Figures, including a Silver Albert Pujols. But unfortunately, James didn’t get the Grand Slam Trout. Well not to fear, since James did so well he has a TON of Caps he can spend on this game reward pool to see if he can get that rare Figure. According to the TRD stats, this game generated a total of 500 player pool rewards, 5 of which are the Mike Trout Grand Slam Figure James is looking for. He also notices 1 jade bat, 1 ruby glove, and 2 gold base players are in the mix as well. 10 minutes and about half his Caps later, and James is sitting happily with his Mike Trout Grand Slam. Along the way, he also picked up another Bronze base Figure. Not bad for a Tuesday afternoon game.

New Ways to PlayOne of the biggest hurdles to we faced last year in MLBC 2018 was introducing traditional gamers and collectors into the Ethereum eco-system. While ETH is a robust decentralized platform allowing for the creation of True Digital Assets, its highly technical nature and complex setup processes did prevent a lot of MLB Fans and potential users from participating in our 2018 inaugural debut. In 2019 we are a rectifying this with the addition of three major features: virtual asset wallets, accepting credit card payments, and two in-game currencies (Diamonds and Caps).

Virtual Figure WalletsVirtual Figure Wallets (VFW) provide the ability for non-ETH users to buy, own and play with MLBC Figures without the need of MetaMask or Ethereum. All the asset purchased by VFW work just like their MetaMask counterparts: they are NFTs which are secured on the Ethereum blockchain and share all the attributes of any other MLBC True Digital Assets. The Figures generated for virtual wallets will reside in a holding Ethereum contract managed by our off-chain gameplay servers (Similar to traditional game inventory management systems). At any point in the future users who have a virtual wallet can migrate all their MLBC Figures to an ETH wallet by performing a signature verification of his/her ETH address to their MLBC account. It’s actually much simpler than it sounds.

Our goal is to make a frictionless experience where a user can start their MLBC collection, play a few live games, gain some rewards before going through the process of establishing an ETH wallet. Unfortunately, one limitation of VFW will be trading and marketplace transaction. While VFW trading with other MLBC users will be a feature coming online later this season, on-site marketplace sales will be limited to ETH sales and will not be accessible to VFW user at this time.

Caps (on the left) and Diamonds (on the right)

In-Game Currency (Diamonds & Caps)Above we spoke at length on Caps and how it is a reward currency in MLBC. It’s important to note that Caps won’t be sold like traditional gaming currencies. Caps will be an EARNED only game currency. Diamonds, on the other hand, can only be acquired with ETH or Fiat (credit card).

Why introduce an in-game currency to MLBC? While Ethereum makes a great medium of exchange, it does provide challenges when dealing with cross-platform economies. Our goal is to provide a full-featured MLBC mobile app this year and to do so an in-game currency can significantly help us facilitate this. An in-game currency also provides us with the ability to display a consistent, stable price regardless of the swings of Ethereum. Ethereum purchases will still be an option of course, and P2P sales/marketplace transaction will be handled by our MLBC ETH sales contract as we did last season.

Now Accepting Credit CardsAs mentioned above, MLBC 2019 will now accept all major credits cards. Credit card transactions can be used to buy the in-game Diamond currency, the currency can then be used to purchase MLBC 2019 Figures. If you already have an ETH wallet established, you can also use our fiat payment system in addition to ETH to make purchases. If you have a verified ETH address and purchase new Figures via fiat with Diamonds, the minted asset will be sent to your account’s verified ETH address.

2019 Figure DistributionSimilar to 2018 season, we will start 2019 with a Draft Sale followed shortly thereafter by the Gameplay launch. More details about gameplay, strategies and a more in-depth look at scoring / PRI will be in a future post.

For this season, distribution numbers have been adjusted to facilitate the new Game Card system and provide a larger pool of figures to accommodate our expected growth. Pending final partner approvals, our seed sales pool will be 195 thousand Figures distributed randomly throughout the season. There will be precisely 6,500 Figures per team with the MLB player selection weighted to each teams starting line up (starters are more likely to appear in the seed pool than bench players). An additional 30,000 Figures are earmarked for limited quantity drop during the season (Special Drops / Events), and another 30,000 will be reserved for promotions. MLB players distributed from this seed pool will have a baseline PRI value giving users the best opportunity to get their desired / favorite MLB players. When gameplay begins MLB player distribution will be dictated by each MLB player’s individual performance making, typically, the more popular MLB players less prevalent.

While no events have been announced, stadium events, such as the Dodgers Crypto giveaway of 2018, will not count towards our promotional pool but will also feature special attributes (such as base design) that will create its own class of a PLAYABLE Figure. We are making stadium promotional Figures playable this season to capitalize on the promotion potential of these events.

Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Common 2019 Bases

2019 Visuals, Rarity & AttributesThis season of MLBC has got a fresh look and some new attributes as well. You can look forward to new bats, gloves, Epic bases, stances, Game Events and uniforms (home & away).

2019 New Epic — Rose Gold

ConclusionFor now, we will leave you with this but as mentioned above we do plan to have additional blog posts that will dive into gameplay, PRI calculation, and play strategies. We here at Lucid Sight hope you enjoyed this look at our upcoming additions to MLBC 2019 and can’t wait for all of you to play ball this year!

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